1 Old Man Zhao

"Ying Yue!" an old man with grizzled, white hair calls, beckoning me to come over. It is the end of the day. I just finished turning off the lights and closing up the bookshop. This man – I call him Old Man Zhao, is the owner of this bookshop. I work here during the day. As an orphaned young girl with no savings, I was lucky to meet Old Man Zhao who offered me a job. Otherwise, I would be on the streets or trafficked.

"Yes, Old Man Zhao." Obediently, I came over. He counted the taels and spirit stones in the register slowly. "How old are you this year?" he asked. "13, sir. But I am still 12." "I see..." The lines etched on his face grew deeper as he frowned in the dim light. It looked as if he was making a difficult decision. Although I also had a night shift doing deliveries, it was still 4 hours away. Old Man Zhao was always good to me. Sometimes, after the bookshop closed, he would teach me what he knew about cultivation and correct my methods. That's right. Old Man Zhao was also a cultivator. He was a Foundation Building cultivator, too! Because of this, no ruffians dared to make trouble for this bookshop. Old Man Zhao used to roam all over the place while he was younger, but for some reason, he returned to operate this bookshop in Valerias, a large city in the secular world on the edge of Kunwu.

"Here." he said mildly, handing me a crisp Qiankun bag with the words "Quincunx Bookshop" imprinted on it. It was one of the Qiankun bags we used for business. Why was he handing it to me? Curiously, I opened it and peered into it. Putting my divine sense into it, there were about 2000 taels and 5 spirit stones in it. Alarmed, I shut it immediately and handed it back to him. "Old Man Zhao, I can't take this." I said. "It's your birthday present. 13 is a special number for cultivators, and it will be your 13th birthday soon. You have no family, and this old man has long become separated from his descendants. You are my only family now. It is only right that you take this." he said. My eyes watered. I had been working here for 3 years, since I was orphaned at 9 in a freak accident and he found me sitting on the street, all muddy and detached.

"Still, this is too much. At least take some back." I insisted. "Aiya! At least give this old man some face! This old man can still afford this much! Or if you can't, take it as a bonus. You've been working hard all year." I smiled. "Thank you then." I said, pocketing it. 2000 taels and 5 spirit stones was a huge sum. My rent was only 150 taels a month, while even 2-3 spirit stones was a fortune even former cultivation clans retired in the secular world would struggle to scrape together. It was simply because we ran a cultivation bookshop on the edge of Kunwu, where many cultivators and would-be cultivators passed by, that they sometimes paid with spirit stones. "Alright, now that you're done. Get lost. Let me get some rest." he said. "Okay, thank you again, Old Man Zhao. I'll keep your kindness in mind." I said, gathering my things in the back room.

Old Man Zhao spoke harshly, but that was just his manner of speaking. I knew that he was actually soft-hearted and kind, otherwise he wouldn't have picked me up from the street, given me a place to work and helped me find a place to live. I closed the door of the bookshop and headed home. My home was a small, 3-storey apartment building ran by mortals. It was one of the cheapest rents I could find, 150 taels, and although I was just happy to get off the streets and would live anywhere, Old Man Zhao insisted cultivators should have more confidence and talked to the landlord. I don't know what he said to him, but the landlord let me live in the 3rd floor and never gave me any problems. The 3rd floor was indeed much safer for a young girl like me compared to a 1st floor apartment.

My room was small, just barely enough for a narrow bed, a washroom, a few shelves and a small table which I replaced with a cauldron. Although it was quite dirty and in shambles when I first moved in, as a cultivator, how could I possibly not know any small spells? With a few words, I was able to clean up the room without much effort. I laid a defensive formation first, then sat on my bed, the only place I could sit on in the room, and started taking an inventory of my items.